In this issue:

• A New Contest - with Prizes! - by John Davidson
• Bitmaps the Fast Way - by Callum Lowcay
• Buttons, Checkboxes and RadioButtons - by Janet Terra
• API Corner - Change Caption of Window - by Alyce Watson
• Tip Corner - Listbox Trivia - by Alyce Watson
  • Listbox Demo 1 - by Brent Thorn
  • Listbox Demo 2 - by Brent Thorn
• Sprite Byte: Shooting - by Alyce Watson
• Using Qcard DLL - Lesson 1 - by Alyce Watson
• Demos:
  • Print and Print Preview with DDOC.DLL - by Eldron Gill
• Newsletter help
• Index

Notes from the Editor:

Be sure to check out the new contest being run by John Davidson, the manager of the Libby Project. This one has some GREAT prizes! Thanks, John, for all that you do for our community!

This month we have a contribution from someone new to Liberty BASIC and to the newsletter, Callum Lowcay. Callum feels that "drawbmp" is too slow for his needs, so he is sharing his API method of displaying bitmaps. Thanks for the interesting article and demo, Callum!

What a treat! Janet Terra has given us a wonderful lesson on the differences between buttons, checkboxes and radiobuttons. She has made excellent use of the Liberty BASIC lesson browser. Load the LSN file into Liberty BASIC and you can read the explanations and run the sample programs all at once. This is a great introduction to these controls and their use. Thanks, Janet!

The API Corner explains how to change the titlebar caption on any type of window. This month's Sprite Byte demonstrates one way to launch a projectile from a user-controlled sprite. This technique will be handy for arcade games. This issue has the beginning of a new series on the use of the QCard32.DLL, which is a free DLL for creating great-looking card games.

The Tip Corner goes into detail on the use of listboxes. Included are two incredible demos by Brent Thorn that show fancy, owner-drawn listboxes. It seems that there is no limit to what we can do with Liberty BASIC! Thanks so much, Brent!

Liberty BASIC has limited support for hard-copy printing. Eldron Gill is sharing his printing demo, and you won't believe how good it is! It uses an inexpensive shareware DLL called DDOC.DLL that even has a "print preview" feature. Eldron's demo shows off the great features of this DLL. Thanks, Eldron!

I'd also like to extend a personal welcome and thanks to Janet Terra, who has joined our team as a copy editor. She is also a writer, who has contributed several great articles. It's fantastic to have you with us, Janet! I already wonder how we did this without you!

- Alyce Watson